Antres, Antrees, Antars

One of my loyal readers (see "Comments" to previous post) wants to know how the word "antres" was pronounced. It's a reasonable inquiry but like many questions about Shakespeare, its answer is not easy.  

I myself pronounce "antres" just as I would "antlers," but without the "l". If I were to guess at an Elizabethan pronounciation (and it would be a guess, even though I've stumbled through the volumes on Shakespearean pronunciation by Kokeritz and Cercignani), I would say the word with a more open initial vowel:  "ahnters." But can we ever be certain how words were pronounced four hundred years ago?  Especially nonce-words like antres? 

Moreover, Shakespeare did not spell antres, "antres.'  Antres is a brilliant editorial intervention that made its initial appearance in Lewis Theobald's The Works of Shakespeare in 1733.

The first time that Othello saw print, in the 1622 quarto, antres was "Antrees." The second time, in the first Folio of 1623, antres was "Antars."  Are either one of these spellings, each of which yields a different pronounciation, authoritative?  It is impossible to know. With some plays, it's clear that F was set from Q, and that therefore any divergences are likely to be errors. But in the case of Othello, Q and F descend independently from a lost original (and it's been suggested that Q reveals evidence of the interpolations and misunderstandings of actors). Neither "Anteers" or "Antars" is definitive. Either pronunciation can therefore be justified.   

Perhaps Shakespeare changed his mind. Perhaps a scribe or a typesetter, struggling with a unique and unfamiliar work, took a guess. The rest is silence.            

 

Comments

[Herm]

Thanks, Doc!

My job--editing recordings for the blind for a Library of Congress program--has me daily obsessed with pronunciation.

I and my colleagues are used to a general public, and even academic specialists, who do not really pay attention to questions of pronunciation. Even a book's author, sometimes, will not really know the proper way to pronounce his own characters' names. It is funny: in our culture we are so used to seeing names on the page and not really ever hearing them that our sense of sound and pronunciation has atrophied. We have put it on the back burner. We don't really care about pronunciation.

With plays, of course, the issue is doubly important: these words are written to be pronounced. But the historical vicissitudes you allude to compound the difficulty.

In any case, thanks for your considered answer on this. Your choice seems like a good one.

Brings up a question, though: how would a company doing a production of Othello decide on a pronunciation of Antres?

Anyway, thanks!